When Filmmakers Meet Interactive Teams
What happens when a filmmaker and a creative director from an interactive shop try to work together? Which toolbox is each one bringing to the table? What is the role of the new producer who needs to navigate between these different platforms? Filmmakers and interactive experts are different creatures, and come from distinct cultures and backgrounds.
Today, in the convergent and transmedia landscapes, collaboration will bridge the gap between the different approaches and workflows. It starts with basic communication and includes defining workflow, leadership, roles and responsibilities.
Three seasoned professionals from both fields will share their successes and failures from experience in the dynamic Canadian industry of convergent and cross media production. We will look at 3 case studies of award winning works and expose new projects in development. The case studies cover different genres and production scenarios : fiction and documentary, independently funded as well as international co-productions. On one hand there are tensions, walls and silos, but there are also exciting and innovative synergies to be created from learning from each other’s experiences.
Presenters
Amit Breuer is an award-winning docmedia producer–director based in Canada. Born and raised in Israel, she founded Amythos Films (now Amythos Media), one of the first independent documentary production companies in the country. Her body of work received the Israeli official ”Art of Cinema” Award in 2002. In 2004, Breuer relocated to Toronto, along with her family, continuing to produce successful projects for traditional and emerging media platforms. Some noteworthy projects include Testimonies (1993); St. Jean (1993); The Specialist (1999); Purity (2003, Yamagata audience Award, Golden Fipa Biarritz); Checkpoint (2004, winner of over 12 major international awards); Love Letters To the Future (2009, an innovative ARG that won two 2010 Webby Awards and a Gemini and was a finalist at SXSW). Guantanamo Trap a theatrical feature documentary premiered at Hot Docs 2011 and won Special Jury Award. Current projects include my September 11th, an innovative social media companion project for the film in development and Exile a multi-platform property that is a Canada-France co-production. Breuer has been a speaker ,presenter and mentor invited regularly to countless industry conference panels in venues such as Berlinale 2012, Hot Docs and Dok Leipzig 2011 to mention few , She was a member of the jury at CPH DOX Copenhagen Amnesty Award, Doc Aviv ,Hot Docs and IDFA among others.
Ghassan Fayad serves as founder and president of Kngfu. Over the 6 years since the company's creation, Kngfu has achieved a position of leadership in Montreal's digital media, entertainment and culture industries, and has won several honors and awards (CNMA, Webby, Boomerang, Gémeaux). Ghassan has come to be a respected voice in the Canadian New Media landscape. The company's now producing original digital properties and working for such clients as the NFB, Ubisoft, the Montreal Canadiens, La Presse, Radio-Canada, CBC, Alliance, Paperny Films, Moment Factory, Sympatico and Téléquebec.
Ghassan has held various positions, from producer, director, senior developer to creative director. He has explored numerous other fields such as software architecture, design, video, animation and illustration. He has been a regular lecturer at INIS, mentor and invited to speak in countless conference panels and was member of the jury at 2008's Boomerang Awards and 2009's CNMA awards.
Ghassan obtained his Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Engineering (McGill, 2001) and studied new media production at INIS (2003).
Chris Harris, Head of Online Content at Shaw Media, is responsible for strategy, programming and the creation of digital content related to GlobalTV.com and Shaw Media’s robust collection of 18 specialty channels – including Food Network Canada, HGTV Canada and History Television.
Chris is an established digital leader with more than a decade experience at major Canadian broadcasters. Prior to joining Shaw Media, Chris held multiple digital posts at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Sports, News and Kids.
Chris has spoken at and appeared on juries at several festivals & conferences including the Banff World Media Festival, nextMEDIA and Merging Media.
Tuesday, March 13
